All But 2 "Magnificent Seven" Stocks Are Underperforming the Market This Year. Here's 1 Company I'd Load Up On and 1 I'd Avoid

As of July 29’s market close, only Apple and Alphabet are outperforming the S&P 500 among the “Magnificent Seven,” while the rest lag this year. Apple is up 24.8% and Alphabet up 6.8%, versus the S&P 500’s 6.7%. The article attributes part of the weakness to investors hunting for value in more niche areas such as memory hardware, and part to concerns about stretched valuations in big tech. The author says Microsoft is the pick to buy, pointing to a 9.5% after-hours surge after its fiscal 2026 Q4 results, driven by AI progress: Azure surpassed $100 billion in revenue for the first time, Microsoft Cloud revenue rose 27% to $214 billion, and Microsoft 365 Copilot doubled paid seats to 30 million. In contrast, Tesla is flagged as a stock to avoid: Q2 revenue rose 26% to $28.2 billion and deliveries hit 480,216 (+25% YoY), but operating income fell 57% YoY, operating margin was 1.4%, and free cash flow was -$1.09 billion.